From Representation to Enactment: The ABC Framework of the Translating Mind

TL;DR

This paper proposes the ABC framework, viewing translation as an enacted, dynamic process involving affective, behavioral, and cognitive interactions, challenging traditional static representation models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-representational, enactive model of the translating mind based on Extended Mind theory, Predictive Processing, and Radical Enactivism.

Findings

Translation is enacted through brain-body-environment loops.

Meaning co-creates in real time via embodied interactions.

The framework offers a new perspective on translation as sociocultural participation.

Abstract

Building on the Extended Mind (EM) theory and radical enactivism, this article suggests an alternative to representation-based models of the mind. We lay out a novel ABC framework of the translating mind, in which translation is not the manipulation of static interlingual correspondences but an enacted activity, dynamically integrating affective, behavioral, and cognitive (ABC) processes. Drawing on Predictive Processing and (En)Active Inference, we argue that the translator's mind emerges, rather than being merely extended, through loops of brain-body-environment interactions. This non-representational account reframes translation as skillful participation in sociocultural practice, where meaning is co-created in real time through embodied interaction with texts, tools, and contexts.